In 1979, Bob Dylan released an LP entitled, “Slow Train Coming.” It was a quite a departure from his previous works, to say the least. And it was received with demur at best.
Bob Dylan is regarded as one of the greatest song writers of all time. What would cause this New York, Jewish born artist to go from “Everybody Must Get Stoned” to “Everybody Gotta Serve Somebody”. A song and album with a clarion Christian message.
Although we don’t know all the details, Dylan became a self-professed born-again Christian sometime in the late 1970s. Sadly, his born-again period seemed to only last for a few years. Why he seemingly left the faith is unknown. Maybe it was when the rebellions, drug and sex crazed youth who followed him since the early 1960s began to turn their collective back on him. Who knows? But the point being, he had it right when he wrote, “(everybody) gotta serve somebody”. For we were all created to worship and serve something greater than ourselves.
Blaise Pascal put it this way, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”
The point being, that if we don’t fill that longing to worship and serve God the Creator, we will fill that void with some thing or someone else. And indubitably, that would include the gods of all the people around us. The Apostle Paul addresses this in detail in Romans chapter 1. “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator… In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.” (1:25-27 NIV) By rejecting God there would be no limit to man’s degradation. In verse 28, we read, “Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so they do what ought not to be done.” (Bold, mine) God let them do what their dark minds wanted to do. They thought by rejecting God, it would bring them freedom, but instead it only brought bondage.
A lesson from Israel
The irony isn’t lost in that, the Jewish born Dylan and his ancestors, the Israelites, couldn’t remain faithful to God their Creator. Let’s take a look at one main stumbling block that caused them, and many of us, to drift into idolatry.
In the case of Israel, they didn’t wholly obey the commandment of the Lord. I draw your attention to Judges chapter one and chapter two. For obvious reasons I’m not going to cut and paste two chapters here but allow me to highlight a few things relating to the subject.
In the book of Judges, God told the tribes of Israel to “drive out” the peoples of the land that he was giving them. But they didn’t obey. Disobedience to the Lord will always end badly. Instead, they cohabitated with them, took upon themselves their customs, they mimicked their behavior, and began to worship their gods, namely Baal and Ashtoreth. Hence, they allowed their hearts to turn away from the Lord. Consequently, the Lord told them, “So now I declare that I will no longer drive out the people living in your land. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a constant temptation to you.” (Judges 2:3 NLT) Further, ” These are the nations that the LORD left in the land to test those Israelites who had not experienced the wars of Canaan. He did this to teach warfare to generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle.” (Judges 3:1-2 NLT)
Baal in America
“Baal worship was rooted in sensuality and involved ritualistic prostitution in the temples. At times, appeasing Baal required human sacrifice, usually the firstborn of the one making the sacrifice.” (gotquestions.com) Serving and worshiping always involves sacrifice. One need to only look at America today to see the evidence of Baal worship. We now live in a highly sexualized culture. We have never been this degenerate before. The distinction between a man and woman are now blurred. Hell, our newest Supreme Court Justice can’t even define what a woman is! Marriage is viewed with distain. Gender is now whatever one chooses it to be. Deviant sexual lifestyles are now being taught in many of our public schools to children as young as 6 or 7. Pornographic books are now found in many of our public schools’ libraries, replete with illustrations. In many of our public libraries it’s not uncommon for them to host a “family friendly” “Drag Queen Story Hour.” Further, some medical professionals now support puberty blocking drugs to be administered to children and even preform sex reassignment surgeries. Moreover, we have a new term now called “gender dysphoria” (the sense that a person is mismatched between their biological sex and gender identity). Add to that, since 1973 the murdering of over 6 million babies still in the womb since, and many of these had their body parts sold to the highest bidder. How can one argue that we are not serving an ancient pagan entity? Is this not the scarifying of our children, metaphorically and literally? And are we not engaging in spiritual prostitution?
“Under the deep magic of Baal, America was morphing into something altogether alien to what it had once been and stood for. As he had done to ancient Israel, he was now doing to America. The leader of Christian civilization was becoming distantly pagan. Baal had turned America into its own antitheses. ” (The Return of The Gods, Jonathan Cain)
The church in this neo-pagan culture
Obviously, we’re not going to drive out, not by military force anyway, the pagans in our land. We live and work among them. Astonishingly, many of them attend our churches (but I’ll save this for another time). The fact is that we are the minority now, and they are the majority. The nation has indeed flipped from God to Paganism. We are Lot and Noah now! But make no mistake, God is testing us. These neo-pagans are an ever-increasing thorn in our side. And the god’s that they worship and serve, hedonism, materialism, environmentalism (mother earth), will be a constant temptation for us. However, if we allow him, God will teach us how to war against them. How not to compromise. And how not to give in. The question we will have to ask ourselves on a daily basis is, who are we going to worship and serve? Hear what Joshua told the Israelites before they crossed over to the Promised Land, “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and Egypt and serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14 NIV) Resolve, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15 b). Make no mistake, there is a “Slow Train Coming”, and the only those washed in the precious blood of Christ will be able to board!
I leave you with the lyrics of Bob Dylans iconic song, “Gotta Serve Somebody”. Please take a few minutes to read it. There’s a lot of truth here. My prayer is that Bob will once again turn back to the God of his ancestors and to his Messiah, Jesus Christ.
” You may be an ambassador
To England or France
You may like to gamble
You might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight
Champion of the world
You might be a socialite
With a long string of pearls
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Yes indeed, you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well it may be the Devil
Or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Might be a rock-n-roll addict
Prancing on the stage
Money, drugs at your command
Women in a cage
You may be a businessman
Or some high degree thief
They may call you: ‘doctor’
Or they may call you: ‘chief’
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Yes you are, you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
Well it may be the Devil
Or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
You may be a state trooper
You might be a Young Turk
You may be the head
Of some big TV network
You may be rich or poor
You may be blind or lame
May be livin’ in another country
Under another name
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Yes you are, you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
Well it may be the Devil
Or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
May be a construction worker
Workin’ on a home
Might be livin’ in a mansion
You might live in a dome
You may own guns
And you may even own tanks
You may be somebody’s landlord
You may even own banks
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
Yes, you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
Well it may be the Devil
Or it might be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
You may be a preacher
Preaching spiritual pride
Maybe a city councilman
Takin’ bribes on the side
May be working in a barbershop
You may know how to cut hair
You may be somebody’s mistress
Maybe somebody’s heir
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Yes, you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
Well it may be the Devil
Or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
Might like to wear cotton
Might like to wear silk
Might like to drink whiskey
Might like to drink milk
Might like to eat caviar
You might like to eat bread
May be sleeping on the floor
Sleepin’ in a king-size bed
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
Yes indeed, you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
Well it may be the Devil
Or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
You may call me Terry
You may call me Timmy
You may call me Bobby
Or you may call me Zimmy
You may call me RJ
You may call me Ray
You may call me anything
No matter what you say
You’re still gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
Yes, you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
Well it may be the Devil
And it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
(Ohh yeah)
(Serve somebody)”
“Gotta serve somebody” Song & Lyrics by Bob Dylan.